KILGOBL, WALTER INTERVIEW #1326

Transcription

1 KILGOBL, WALTER INTERVIEW #

2 - 8 - Form A-(S-149) BIOGRAPHY FORM WORKS FROGRESS ADMINISTRATION Indian-Horror History Project for Oklahoma KILGORE, WALTER INTERVIEW 1326 Field Worker 1 s name Thad ;3mith, Jr» t This report mado on (date) April Name Walter Kil^ore, 2. Post Office Address Chlckasha, Oklahoma 3. Residence address (or location) 426 North 5th btreet, 4. DATE OF BIRTH: ' Month January Day 26 year Place of birth T e xas ;6. Name of Father Ht Place of birth Other information about father Buried in Oklahoma 7. Name of Mother I/iargaret Moore Place of birth Georgia Buried in Oklahoma* Notes or complete narrative by the field worker dealing with the lifa and story of the person interviewed. Refer to Manual for suggected subjects and questions. Continue on blank sheets if necessary and attach firmly to this form. Number of sheets attached.

3 KILGORE, Wi&TKR INTERVIEW Thad aolth, Jr., Field Wor'-rer April 19, 1937 Ai Interview witfc'fttr. belter Kilgore, 426 North 5th.Street, Chickaaha, Oklahoma. I nede my first trip into GklahopB in the year 1896 from Texas* 0n8 of our neighbors shipped a Cose threshing machine to zx :.eno, and he brought his own crew from Texas. I was one of them. The separator was made of wood, and the power ma a steam "engine. / We started threshing wheat near.j. li^no where there were thousands of acres to be threshed. One morning T stood, gn the threshl::g machines in sight. The owner of the machine was named Vaughn, and " he had his own cook shack whero he fed the men. The cook quit before threshing season wos over and I took the job. There were lots of Indians tlfit would come by our ma chine and want some thing to e a t, and they seemed to like baked sweet potatoes better than anything else we had to eat, Mr«Vaughn said to cook plenty and feed all of them that came by, which I did*

4 KILGORE, WALTER INTERVIEW That fall when threshing season was over, the threshing machine woo stored, and ray boss begged me to go back to Texas with him, as all of the old crew had quit and had other Jobs* 1 did not wan! to t5 back and uoid so, but told hia I would go part w; ; y with him* We started back in u wagon and 1 stayed with him until we got about forty miles southeast of Oklahoma City, where 1 saw the finest cotton that 1 had ever seen. I grabbed my satchel, and told him good-bye,, that I was going to pick some cotton. 1 cot a job picking, and the pay was seventy-five cents per hundred«1 stayed and picked for there cemn a anow hx,c\ I vent back to Texas. The next year -I cans back with tbe man who owned the threshing nochine, and hf-lped thresh near 1 ^eno that summer. The formers were making betwften eighteen ani twenty-five bushels of wheat per. acre, and some of them had not plowed their land before sowing. When we had finished threshing he year boforo it was late and some oi the farmers did not think they had tine to plow t so had just sown their wheat in the wheot stubble, c and it made pretty good wheat too* That fell, 1897, I went to Choctaw to see my

5 KILGOBE, y/altkr INTERVIEW Sweetheart, and then back to Texas, and in the summer of 1889 I came back to Oklahoma, and that fflll^ in September, Jjklahoga City was having its first fair. They were fix- j ing up a nice float for the parade, ar>d wanted some yourg man and girl to Ret rcarried on it during the parade, and were offering?. housekeeping outfit to the lucky couple. I tried to persuade rcy s^7eetheart to marry me on the float; although she refused to do thst we wvjre r.m ried anyway. At the fair farmers had Drought cattle ^nd horaes and all kinds o-> produce, e'^d different kinds o "rain, Thay also had roulette wheels and dice te les on the acreet, wife an i I rented a farm one mile south t f-.;d onehalf nile east of there one yeer and then moved t;> Texas. In 1902 we moved ba ck t.> Okla l;oma ai.d i bought a relinquishmfcr:t on a quarter section of land country, twelve miles northwest, of Ghickasha. in the Ceddo X*.gav* nine hundred dollars for it, 1 dug a dugout on t. e ijand and covered it with logs. After I had put hay on the logs I covered it with dirt, I carried water from my neighbors well, and being a water witch myself, I witched all over the place and the _dy place I could find water was where

6 KILGOKE, JfAITTB ' INTERVIEW 1326 ay dugout was, oo I continued to carry water from my neighbor*^ until I sold out in 1903 for $ fihile I was there 1 helped bale prairie hey with e horsepower baler* ( The hay was put in the baler aul packed down with the feederraai^b foot* sometimes he wo^ld get his foot caught by the plunger tha' pushed the hay into the press, tut no serious accident ever uccox ed* In 1903 two other fellowa and I went to the Kiamichi {fountains to hunt. The second day we were thure we had killed four deer and a nurjv r of ouail ej.d prairie chickens,. so we loaded our wagon and -cane back home,,:.» In' 1906 ^heri Oklfii: I:B.Ms jmde a state., I was run*-' ing a threshi. g mschiae, eight ailes west of Chickasha, Our neighbor asked us to go to Chickaaba with him t>- help celebrate the occasion, Lut due to qvr eagerness to finish threshing, we did not stop our-work to go»